If it were up to J.J. Abrams, he'd be able to keep his mouth shut about
"Super 8" — his upcoming, Steven Spielberg-produced summer blockbuster —
until the movie slips into theaters June 10. That PR-free approach may
have flown back when Abrams was making home movies to premiere, say, in
his parents' basement, but that's just not how Hollywood works.
And so, as part of MTV News' Summer Movie Preview week, Abrams
skipped away from a scoring set, where he's overseeing the orchestral
music, to chat about the movie. We already know the film is set in Ohio
in 1979 and follows six kids who are using a Super 8 camera to make a
zombie flick. One night, they end up filming near a set of train tracks
and capture a calamitous wreck and the creature that emerges from the
wreckage. Soon the military pulls into town, and things start to get,
well, very funky for these unsuspecting residents.
What we haven't learned much about is the nature of Abrams'
collaboration with Spielberg, the way the director has managed to nod at
Spielberg's films without copying them and much more. Thankfully,
Abrams stepped in to provide us with some answers.
MTV News: Are we tearing you away from finishing your film? I hope not.
J.J. Abrams: We're about to lock picture, which I'm
excited to do. I'm actually watching the musicians walk into the scoring
stage right now with their cello cases and bass cases. It's an amazing
score that Michael Giacchino has written. This part of the process is
always the most exciting, because everything's coming together. The
music is always one of the most exciting parts for me. I'm thrilled to
be at this stage.
MTV News: Much of the discussion about this film has been
about the blend of your talents and Spielberg's. Is there a nod to
[frequent Spielberg collaborator] John Williams' scoring in this, or do
you let Michael go at it without the specter of John Williams over him?
Abrams: I feel like on this movie, both he and I were as
influenced by growing up and making movies as, let's face it, those
loser kids who weren't the most popular, as we were influenced by the
films of that era. What's cool about working on this film, especially
with Michael, is that he and I shared the same kind of memories of
childhood, even though we grew up 3,000 miles apart. When we met, we
bonded over how we had the same kind of references and making movies as
kids. I don't know how you would separate the various influences that
Michael has experienced, including the remarkable scores of John
Williams. What he's doing is very much his own voice, which is the only
thing I'd want. I'd never ask him to do a score that apes a pre-existing
score. But certainly the mood, the DNA of this movie, is as influenced
by the films of the era as it was by the personal experiences we both
had.

Deadline reports that screenwriter David Koepp (The Shadow, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,
etc.) has been hired to draft a new Jack Ryan script. The idea is that
Koepp will take Tom Clancy's character back to his younger days in an
origin story.

The original spec script written by Adam Cozad contains the traumatic helicopter crash that was referenced in The Hunt for Red October, and Koepp's re-writes are expected to keep this part of the story.

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood had better hope that this weekend means spring will go out like a lion and summer comes in like a bull.

Fresh off one of its worst quarters in years, the
film industry is banking on a slate of big-name sequels — and perhaps
some amnesia about 3-D films — bringing a jolt to attendance, which has
been mired in a six-month slump.

This weekend marked the first in two months in which sales outpaced the same weekend last year, led by the debut of 20th Century Fox 3-D 'toon Rio. It earned $39.2 million.

The need for a rebound, some analysts say, is
pressing. The first quarter of 2011 saw just two movies crack $100
million: the 2-D comedies Rango and Just Go With It. And some high-profile movies struggled when they ventured into the third dimension, despite premium ticket prices.

That reluctance put attendance at 261 million
tickets sold for the first quarter, the lowest since 1995, according to a
study by Box Office Mojo. Though revenue is only at a five-year low,
those figures got a boost from the rising cost of tickets, now at $8.01.

Fox chief Tom Rothman stopped short of
criticizing earlier 3-D pictures, but he says moviegoers "are a lot
savvier. You can't rush a movie out there and think people will see it
because of technology."

They haven't been rushing out, period, says
Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo. "As usual, the movies
themselves seem to be the main culprit," he says. "They continue to
inspire indifference."

"Cinephiles aren't going to be thrilled with the
summer, because it's going to have a ton of sequels and animation," he
says. "That's not always great for original stories. But it seems to do
the trick at the box office."

Telltale Games is currently developing games for Xbox 360, the studio has announced.
Recent titles such as Back to the Future, Puzzle Agent and Tales of
Monkey Island have all side-stepped the platform in favour of iOS, PC,
PlayStation 3 and/or WiiWare.
However, the developer confirmed on its Twitter feed that it was now working with Microsoft again.
"We're very excited to announce that we are officially publishing games
for the XBox 360! We will still be coming to other platforms as well,"
read one Tweet.
"No announcements on what's coming to the XBox 360 from us yet but we
have some exciting stuff in store! Stay tuned!" followed another.
Telltale currently has Jurassic Park, Law & Order: Los Angeles,
Puzzle Agent 2, The Walking Dead, Fables, Hector: Badge of Carnage and a
new Kings Quest title in development.
A statement from CEO Dan Connors yesterday announcing a delay to its Jurassic Park tie-in
read "We'll be investing the extra time into making the game great and
it will be released simultaneously on every platform this fall."
The last episodic Telltale game to see an Xbox 360 release was Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures in early 2009.

DreamWorks and Warner Bros., which had been working on competing Martin
Luther King biopics, are teaming to make one, TheWrap confirmed
Thursday.
The new project is a 50-50 coventure of DreamWorks and Warner Bros.
Kario Salem, who had been attached to Warner Bros. version, will write the script.

Andres Valverdehas a rather good spanish blog over at http://johnwilliamscomposer.blogspot.com/ and has put this impressive music tribute to John Williams together with a love theme featuring clips from Superman, Star Wars, Sabrina, Heidi, The River and Earthquake. Have a listen below.

(Left to right) Stephen Spielberg, John Williams and George Lucas unveil USC's John Williams Scoring Stage.Photograph by Brian King

LOS
ANGELES—Composer John Williams and directors Steven Spielberg and
George Lucas were on hand as the University of Southern California's
School of Cinematic Arts unveiled its newly christened John Williams
Scoring Stage on Tuesday at the USC campus.

The 1,900-square-foot room, formerly known as the Steven Spielberg
stage, was built in 1983 and is regularly used to record music for
student films made by USC directors. The renaming, a USC spokesman said,
was "a tribute to Steven and George's long collaborations with
(Williams) and a recognition of how important an inspiring name like
John's is to the next generation here at the school."

Williams, 79, called it "an indescribable honor and privilege" and spoke
of the scoring stage as a place that "brings together the sister arts
of film and music.... This stage represents an intersection between the
future and the present."

Approximately 70 invited guests listened as Spielberg and Lucas recalled
how they met the celebrated composer, four of whose five Oscars (and 17
of whose 45 nominations) are for films directed by one or the other: Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler's List.

It was a fantasy world plucked from George Lucas' imagination.
But
life could thrive on a planet like Luke Skywalker's Tatooine, with its
two suns, in the Star Wars universe, scientists have claimed.
However, the legendary director did get one detail wrong - the trees would have had black leaves.

Two suns: Life could thrive on a planet like Luke Skywalker's Tatooine, scientists have claimed

Scientists have discovered that the temperature of a star determines
its colour - and at different temperatures, life evolves in very
different ways.
Photosynthesis - the process by which plants produce energy from sunlight - is altered when the light colour is changed.
Researchers carried out computer simulations to model Earth-like
planets either orbiting two stars close together or one of two widely
separated stars.

More...

They found that plants with dim red dwarf suns - like the desert world of Tatooine - are likely to have black or grey plants.
The
study is significant because it means scientists hunting for alien life
should not rule out planets with multiple suns as uninhabitable.
Many multi-star systems contain 'red dwarfs'. These are cool, faint
stars that are the most common star type in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Around half of all red dwarfs, and a quarter of sun-like stars, exist in multiple systems.

Jack O'Malley-James, who is leading the University of St Andrews research, said: 'The
temperature of a star determines its colour and, hence, the colour of
light used for photosynthesis.
'Depending on the colours of their
star-light, plants would evolve very differently.
'Our simulations suggest that planets in multi-star systems may host exotic forms of the more familiar plants we see on Earth.
'Plants with dim red dwarf suns for example, may appear black to our
eyes, absorbing across the entire visible wavelength range in order to
use as much of the available light as possible.
'They may also be able to use infrared or ultraviolet radiation to drive photosynthesis.
'For planets orbiting two stars like our own, harmful radiation from
intense stellar flares could lead to plants that develop their own
UV-blocking sun-screens, or photosynthesising microorganisms that can
move in response to a sudden flare.'
Plants get their green colour from the pigment chlorophyll. It
absorbs the light, which is vital if photosynthesis is to take place.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

It's all systems go for the construction of Lucasfilm's first overseas production facility in Singapore.

At
the groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon (14 April), it was announced
that the complex will be named 'The Sandcrawler Building'.

The film production company says it's a playful reference to the famous vehicle seen in various Star Wars episodes.

Located in Fusionopolis, the Sandcrawler is set to be ready by 2013 and will house the Singapore arm of Lucasfilm.

Micheline
Chau, President and Chief Operating Officer of Lucasfilm, says this
will help the republic make further inroads into the gaming, animation
and visual effects industry.

"We are really working out
some very, very innovative gaming ideas. We also have a feature
animation project that is here, that we've talked about, and that
project of course is again top secret, but it will be produced in
Singapore. So i think that will be a real milestone for studio."

According to CinemaBlend and What’s Playing, J.J. Abrams is under tons of pressure from Paramount to make the next “Star Trek” film 3D.
According to What’s Playing, Paramount’s logic for wanting a 3D “Star Trek 2″ is based on George Lucas retooling the “Star Wars” prequels into 3D theatrical releases. It’s confusing reasoning, to be sure.
When approached about the next film being 3D, Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the film, said, “As far as I know, no. I mean…it depends. Maybe.”
He went on to say that even though he’s not the hugest cheerleader for 3D, he’s been convinced 3D can work in certain instances, like “The Adventures of Tintin”, his latest acting gig.
“When something’s made to be in 3D, if it is somehow part of the experience, fair enough,” he said. “I’ve done 3D movies. ‘Tintin’ is amazing. That is going to be in 3D and that is going to be amazing. Sometimes, it’s like if you see a movie that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to 3D, like perhaps something that is live-action or that isn’t built for 3D, it’s more like they’re worried about it. 3D can sometimes be a vote of no-confidence.”

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Just got back from the Sci-fi fair held at Newport South Wales. What a great time. I met Gerald Home who played Squid Head and Mon Calamari in Star Wars, Alan Ruscoe who played Plo Koon and numerous Doctor Who characters and Toby Philpott who helped control Jabba in Return Of The Jedi. Take a look at some of the photos and videos. Feel free to leave me a comment or tweet on twitter.

Gerald Home - Great guy who spent time to discuss his experience on Return Of The Jedi

Hes the one on the left.

Alan Rusco with me sharing a joke

Below are some more photos including a video of the fair. Includes Daleks, K-9, a David Tennant look-a-like, Stormtroopers and errrr a bird!

According to a report from Kotaku,
gamers may have more on their hands than simple lightsaber combat with a
leaked survey document containing information on unannounced aspects of
gameplay which is said to include Pod Racing and playing as a Rancor
monster.

The Pod Racing sequence is said is allow players to control the Pod
Racer by mimicking the movements of a steering wheel with their hands,
while playtime as a Rancor will be undertaken by making stomping motions
in front of the Kinect camera.

Accompanying the leaked survey document was a number of storyboards for a
planned commercial for the title which depicts art drawn in the prequel
and Clone Wars era of the Star Wars universe, further suggesting that
the game will exist within this timeframe, meaning that there is sure to
be some Battle Droid and double-ended lightsaber action around the
corner.

Currently LucasArts remains tight-lipped on the validity of the documents leaked.

Saturday, 23 April 2011

It’s
sadly not an official one, but for a custom piece, it’s not so bad!
Sure, the face could do with some work (even if it is based on the
original pixel art design of LeChuck and not his proper artwork), but
the devil (or zombie ghost in this case) is in the details.
Get a load of that base! Not only is there a Stan’s Previously Owned Vessels Sign, but an adorable little Guybrush voodoo doll.
The figure was sculpted by RPGer, and you can see it in more detail at the link below.LeChuck [Figure Realm, via Toycutter]

Mike
Russell went undercover for the New Jersey State Police to infiltrate
an organized crime syndicate. He brought down the family, with 48
arrests and 31 guilty pleas in 1986. His work was documented in an HBO
special. (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post)

Mike Russell is the kind of cop other cops call a “dirt magnet.”
Really, they mean it as a compliment.
The bad guys always seem to come to him, even now that he’s 60, semi-retired and living in Delray Beach.
Recently at lunch, he was approached by a local small-time drug
dealer about buying cocaine and OxyContin – while wearing a T-shirt from
the Hollywood police, a department he consults for from time to time.
That was just his latest come-to-papa conviction.
“When I’m at my happiest is when I’m down in the ghetto, making cases,” he said.
Maybe he exudes a passion for his job that crooks find irresistible, a pheromone for thieves.
How else to explain how the former Irish kid with reddish-brown hair
was invited into the mob, while he was a known cop, and helped bring
down the crime family that inspired The Sopranos?
It’s the kind of story, and he’s the kind of cop, that Steven Spielberg makes movies about.
Russell, a 20-year police veteran, recently signed a deal with
Spielberg and DreamWorks to have that episode dramatized into a black
comedy for the silver screen, starring Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah
Marshall, and How I Met Your Mother).
Steve Zaillian, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Schindler’s List, is the executive producer.
And Russell, with crime writer Patrick Picciarelli, just sold the book rights to St. Martin’s Press.
Russell is his own PR man because no one can sell the story like he
can. Although William Morris Entertainment got him into the room with
Spielberg, all he had to do was tell his story of undercover work in
that New Jersey accent and loom over them with that 6-foot-1 frame
reminiscent of a castle door.
With his physique and bloodline, what choice did he have but police work?
In his neighborhood in the 1960s, a kid grew up to be one of three things: a cop, a wiseguy or a firefighter, like his father.
“And I didn’t like heights,” he said.
He already knew the inner workings of the mob, growing up in a
neighborhood packed with mobsters. An amateur boxer, he even worked as a
bouncer in a gangster club in Newark, N.J., when he was 18. It was his
mother who persuaded him to attend the police academy, and he earned a
reputation for taking guys down without a weapon as a street cop.
“I’d just cuff ‘em up quick and get rid of ‘em,” he said.
By 1980, after 10 years on the force, he was working in a tactical
squad, specializing in kidnappings, riots, hostage situations –
“heavy-duty stuff,” he said.
That’s when the New Jersey State Police approached him about trying to crack the Newark crime family.
He agreed and they planted a story that he had been fired from the Newark police for using excessive force.
He started driving a truck as a side job as he became embedded in the
community until one day he saw an older man being mugged by two young
Puerto Rican men.
Russell jumped out of his truck and beat down the two men, saving, as
it turned out, Andrew Gerardo, the head of the crime family that
inspired The Sopranos.
Gerardo invited him to lunch at his favorite diner, and when he
learned Russell had been a cop tried to get a foothold inside the police
force.
Over the next three years, Russell worked his way into the family,
setting up an oil-delivery business that was a front by the state police
next to the mob headquarters.
“He has the gift of gab, of convincing anyone of anything,” said
Russell’s co-author, Picciarelli, a former New York Police lieutenant
who has published four books.
“He was the antithesis of everything an undercover cop should be, but he did it.”
It wasn’t always easy. When he insulted one crime boss, a hit was
ordered on him. He was mugged in an alley and shot in the back of the
head. But the bullet only grazed his skull as he was leaning down to
grab a gun on his ankle. However, he suffered brain damage after hitting
the ground, and he lost his sense of smell and taste.
“And my wife at the time was a great Italian cook. But that’s OK. I
tried to remember the taste of the food when I ate,” he said.
Meanwhile, since he was only a contractor for the state police, he
used hidden cameras to film the entire investigation, which later aired
on HBO as Confessions of an Undercover Cop.
And when the state police finally raided the crime family for illegal
gambling, racketeering and loansharking, Russell’s film had all the
goods.
The investigation resulted in 48 arrests and 31 guilty pleas in 1986, according to the film.

Who among us doesn't long for adventure, fortune and glory? When I
first heard about the Indiana Jones archaeological museum exhibit
debuting in Montreal on April 28, I realized we all relate to the epic
quests of legendary truth-seeker Indiana Jones. Played by the
ever-dashing Harrison Ford in movies released between 1981 and 2008, the
earnest, brooding hero made archaeology sexy and ancient relics
titillating.
I remember seeing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in
1984, when I was an awkward, bespectacled kid. I remember the
one-liners, the fedora, the triumphant theme song that made me sure that
good would triumph over evil. Maybe things were simpler then, or maybe I
was just young(er). But like our hero Indy, I believed that things
would change.
With the franchise still going strong, there's no better ambassador
than Dr. Indiana Jones to make the science of archaeology exciting and
relevant to a worldwide audience of all ages. As such, on April 28, the
Montreal Science Centre hosts the world premiere of a major new
interactive "museum experience," Indiana Jones and the Adventure of
Archaeology. (And who doesn't love a glamorous world premiere?) Using
state-of-the-art multimedia technology, the exhibit features a
mind-blowing collection of ancient artifacts and Indiana Jones movie
materials (like props, set designs and conceptual art). The show runs in
Montreal through September 18 before hitting the road for stints in
Canada, Europe and Asia. (New York fans take note: the Montreal show is
its closest scheduled stop.)
Here's how the exhibit goes down: You get a hand-held video companion
guide to assist on your quest to solve various archaeological mysteries
as you navigate through the 10,000 square-foot exhibit, from the "Indy
Trail" to various archaeological zones and interactive adventures.
Alongside your new BFF Indiana Jones, you'll experience the real stories
behind relics like the Holy Grail and decipher ancient scripts. You'll
learn how real-life archaeologists solve mysteries around the world from
Peru to fictional places like Akator and Mayapore. You will be
titillated!
Yet this exhibit is no fairy tale. If you're wondering where the fact
comes in, look no further than a little organization called the
National Geographic Society, whose other traveling exhibitions have been
seen by more than six million visitors. Along with the Penn Museum,
they assembled actual artifacts and historical facts and figures for the
show, whose other partners include Lucasfilms Ltd. and Montreal's X3
Productions.
For tickets and information, visit indianajonestheexhibition.com. For more about Montreal, check out the Montreal Buzz blog at www.tourisme-montreal.org/Blog/

Friday, 22 April 2011

Palazzo Editions will publish a "major" retrospective of the work of
Steven Spielberg in August 2012, written in co-operation with the
director.Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective will be written by film
critic and documentary maker Richard Schickel, who made documentary
"Spielberg on Spielberg". The book uses Schickel's own interviews with
the director and Spielberg will also write the introduction.
Stills from the DreamWorks archive will illustrate his 40-year
career, from his first film, "Duel", in 1971, through to "Lincoln",
which stars Daniel Day Lewis as US president Abraham Lincoln and will be
released in 2012.
Two other new Spielberg films, "The Adventures of Tintin" and "War
Horse" are also due this year. Palazzo, which celebrates its 10th
anniversary this year, has agreed co-edition sales agreed at auction
with Sterling (North America), De La Martiniere (France), Knesebeck
(Germany) and Forma (Sweden).

LONDON — Before it was made into a hit West End play, before it was bound for Broadway, before it was set to be Steven Spielberg’s
next big movie, “War Horse” was a slim, powerful children’s book about a
young man and his beloved horse on the front lines of World War I.

Published in 1982, the book was a “huge nonevent” at the time, according
to its author, Michael Morpurgo; it drew better reviews than his
earlier works but relatively little sales. It did get nominated for a
big national prize, which it failed to win. Mr. Morpurgo, transported to
the ceremony in a limousine, found that the car had mysteriously
dematerialized during the evening; he left by subway.

Undaunted, he kept writing and publishing, sometimes two or three books a
year (he has now written more than 120), and his reputation grew. From
2003 to 2005 Mr. Morpurgo was Britain’s third children’s laureate (a
post similar to that of poet laureate, but for children’s literature),
an honor befitting someone who had become one of the country’s best
loved and most visible children’s authors. But while many of his books
were hits, “War Horse” seemed destined for noble semiobscurity. “If
sales ever reached 1,500 copies a year, I would be surprised,” Mr.
Morpurgo said.
But that all changed in 2007, when a dramatic version of “War Horse”
opened at the National Theater. Starring, as the horses, life-size
puppets created by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, the
play was a huge, emotional triumph, leaving audiences wrung out and
weeping. It transferred to the West End, where it is still selling out.
It opens Thursday at Lincoln Center Theater
in New York, where Mr. Morpurgo will be in the audience. And in
December the film version, directed by Mr. Spielberg and starring the
British actors Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch and Emily Watson (and a cast of real horses), is to open in the United States.
The cause of all this excitement is 67 years old, acutely modest and
delightfully chatty, able to turn almost any observation into an
entertaining anecdote. Dressed the other day in a beret, rumpled
Nantucket-red pants and a matching Nantucket-red safari-style jacket
(equally rumpled), he seemed alternately thrilled, surprised and amused
by what had befallen a book he wrote so many years, and so many books,
ago.
He had had his doubts about whether “War Horse” would work onstage. When
he first heard of the plans to use puppets, he said, he thought it
sounded disastrous, “like a joke.” But he calmed down when he saw the
result: life-size puppets that move, whinny, startle and nuzzle so much
like real horses, they seem to be fully realized characters.
Mr. Morpurgo’s novels, set all around the world, tend to focus on some
favorite themes: humans’ extraordinary bond with animals, children’s
courage in adversity, and the power and wonder of nature. Many have gone
on to win awards, and four have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal,
Britain’s best-known children’s literature prize.
“He’s the most respected British children’s writer working today,
whether he’s writing for very young readers or for teenagers,” said Jon
Howells, a spokesman for Waterstone’s book chain. “He’s a very powerful,
very evocative, very insightful writer. He doesn’t patronize or
condescend to his readers, and they really respond.”
“War Horse” is published by Scholastic in the United States, with more
than 500,000 copies in print, said Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for the
publisher.
Why has “War Horse” broken out in such a big way? The story resonates
now more than when it was written, perhaps because of the era we live
in. “In 1982 the only war in Britain was the cold war,” Mr. Morpurgo
said. “But times have changed in the last 15 to 20 years. War does seem
to be endemic. When it’s possible to do it, we seem to do it. It never
ceases to amaze me that we fall into that trap again and again.”
The book, which has been called a great argument for pacifism, is
written from the point of view of Joey the horse. It was inspired, in
part, by a series of conversations Mr. Morpurgo had had years ago in his
village, Iddesleigh, in Devon, with an elderly man who had served in a
cavalry unit in World War I. “He told me with tears in his eyes that the
only person he could talk to there — and he called this horse a person —
was his horse,” Mr. Morpurgo said.
From the Imperial War Museum, Mr. Morpurgo learned that between one
million and two million British horses had been sent to the front lines
in the first World War, and that only 65,000 or so had come back. He
resolved to write about them but struggled to find the right voice.
Then one evening he was at the farm he and his wife run in Devon, where
poor children come to work with animals. (There are now three in
Britain, and one in Vermont.) He was passing through the stable yard
when he saw one of the children, a troubled boy who had a bad stutter
and had not uttered a word in school in two years, standing head to head
with a horse.
“He started talking,” Mr. Morpurgo recalled. “And he was talking to the
horse, and his voice was flowing. It was simply unlocked. And as I
listened to this his boy telling the horse everything he’d done on the
farm that day, I suddenly had the idea that of course the horse didn’t
understand every word, but that she knew it was important for her to
stand there and be there for this child.” That became Joey’s role in
“War Horse” — observer and witness as much as protagonist.
Mr. Morpurgo’s books have been set in jungles, on islands and in
communities torn up by the Arab-Israeli conflict and by the 2004
tsunami. His most recent book, “Shadow,” tells the story of an Afghan
boy who flees to Britain, only to be put in a detention center as he
fights to stay in the country. One of Mr. Morpurgo’s many campaigns has
been to end the practice of incarcerating children in such centers.
He is in demand as a speaker and an advocate for, among other things,
libraries, literacy and the rights of children. But it may well be that
“War Horse” is his defining piece of work.
“All this should have happened 30 years ago,” he said recently. “It’s
all come at completely the wrong time. But better late than never —
although I don’t think my wife thinks so, sometimes.”

Thursday, 21 April 2011

Pixar is preparing for the premier in June of its latest animated film
'Cars 2' -- the sequel to the highly successful original 'Cars' from
five years ago. It will be released as the studio celebrates its 25th
anniversary.

The Make A
Wish Foundation is going out of this world to make a little boy's dream
come true. They will help transform Matthew Grammer into the droid R2D2
from the Star Wars movies.
Matthew and his mom were surprised by a storm
trooper in the lobby of St. Francis Children's Hospital on Tuesday,
where Matthew is undergoing treatments for Leukemia. Matthew says he
chose R2D2 because of its power to control other droids and machines,
and because he's cool.
Engineering students at the University of
Tulsa will help construct the mechanical components of the robot. It
will be fully operational, allowing Matthew to control it while sitting
inside.
The Little Mountain production company will
build the shell. It will have all of the lights and make all of the
signs that fans of Star Wars will recognize. Construction of the
life-sized droid should be complete sometime this summer.

AV tech company THX, from Lucasfilm that has set
reproduction standards for theaters, is acquiring the cineSpace Color
Management suite from privately held Cine-Tal Systems, a developer of
image monitoring and color management systems. The acquisition
complements technologies and services THX has long been delivering to
post-production pros. cineSpace is used for DI, vfx, broadcast,
animation and games to produce and render representations of how an
image will appear in its final form."With specific requirements from
creative artists about the way color is displayed, color matching has
become a lengthy, iterative cycle in post-production," per a cineSpace
statement. "cineSpace cuts down on these cycles by removing the
guesswork when dealing with film images and producing accurate image
representations which can be viewed and manipulated on a digital
workstation monitor or projector. This translates into a potential
savings of thousands of dollars and countless hours on a project."
"THX
is the right company to extend the reach and adoption of cineSpace into
the post-production space," said Robert Carroll, CEO at Cine-Tal. "It
brings years of engineering and industry know-how in the color
management space, and the global reach of the company will ensure that
more colorists will have access to our software."

Gareth Edwards, director of the sci-fi hit 'Monsters’, out soon on DVD,
discusses the first visual effects blockbuster.

I compare Star Wars to something like Sgt Pepper in music: the difference
between before and after it was so massive that it’s hard to see how you
could take that step with one film again. It invented the visual-effects
blockbuster.

The planets just aligned. You’ve got George Lucas, one of the genius
filmmakers of his generation; John Williams, one of the greatest film
composers who’s ever lived, doing probably his best work; and Ralph
McQuarrie, the brilliant concept designer, doing his. They bring an actor
called Harrison Ford into the spotlight, and so discover the star of a
generation. On top of that, Industrial Light & Magic – probably the greatest
special-effects company in the history of cinema – is born. And then,
there’s a grand George Campbell-ish plot wrapped up in science-fiction
clothing. This generation wasn’t going to church and hearing the classic
biblical stories – Star Wars gave this to them, just with laser swords and
spaceships.

As for its influence, I think it’s like inventing TNT or E=MC² – some people
use it for bad, some for good. Many filmmakers learn the wrong lessons from
Star Wars. They think: as long as we have lots of explosions and people
running around with guns, we’re going to have a hit on our hands.

The script is often criticised, but because it’s packed full of dialogue that
makes no sense, this actually adds to the idea of a world. You hear Luke
Skywalker say, “I used to bull’s-eye womp rats back home in my T-16”, and
you think: was this a scene that was cut? In every moment, the film hints at
what could be a whole other movie, but one that you just haven’t had the
chance to see, and that’s the difference between the first three films and
the three prequels.

What makes the first three so powerful is that you’re sitting there thinking,
“What’s down that corridor? Who are those creatures that just walked past?
What is a T-16?” You sense that Lucas’s universe is massive compared to the
fragment that you’re witnessing – but then, when you finally see all those
creatures and buildings in all their glory, it suddenly seems a lot smaller.

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

He was the charismatic buddy of Indiana Jones, the head of the KGB
in a James Bond flick and the voice of Man Ray in Spongebob Squarepants.
But John Rhys-Davies - a tall, dark-haired, deep-voiced hunk of a
man - is perhaps always going to be best remembered for playing the role
of a dwarf.
The Welsh-born actor played the belligerent warrior Gimli in Peter
Jackson's Lord of The Rings, enchanting viewers with his well-timed one
liners and begrudging friendship with Legolas the elf.
And, at midday on Friday, Stuff will host a live chat with the star
who this weekend will be attending the Armageddon Expo in Wellington.
Despite the character's popularity, Rhys-Davies has vowed he will not return as Gimli in the LOTR prequel the Hobbit.
"I've already been asked and to be honest with you, I wouldn't. I
have already completely ruled it out," he told Empire Online.
"There's a sentimental part of me that would love to be involved
again. Really I am not sure my face can take that sort of punishment any
more."
The punishment he's referring to is the five hours of make-up each
day an the allergic reactions to his prosthetics - which swelled his
eyes shut and burned some of the skin on his face.
However, the 66-year-old is not adverse to helping on the film -
offering to come on board as a "dwarf adviser" - or appearing to talk
about his time working with Jackson.

Monday, 18 April 2011

Feral Interactive announced today that LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, the sequel developed by TT Games
for PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, will be released for Mac on April 28th.
LEGO Indiana Jones 2 presents a tongue-in-cheek take on all four
cinematic adventures of pop culture's most iconic archaeologist,
including for the first time ever Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull and will give players the ability to create levels of
their own.

ILM used around 450 Quadro-based workstations to shorten the production time of Rango.Zoom
Wednesday Nvidia said that Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) used Quadro GPUs to help render Rango, the just-released CGI-animated movie from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon. Approximately 450 ILM Quadro workstations were used in both the San Francisco and Singapore studios to help overcome production demands and timeline challenges.
"Whenever you're approaching a film of this scale you need to make
your production pipeline operate as efficiently as possible --
especially when it comes to character animation work," said Tim
Alexander, VFX supervisor for Rango. "By using Nvidia Quadro processors and building GPU-accelerated processes into our workflow, we saved a huge amount of rendering time."
In addition to using commercialized animation tools like Autodesk's Maya, the Rango
team used a wide range of ILM's in-house applications including
"Plume," a GPU-accelerated fluid solver/renderer that has been used on
previous films like The Last Airbender and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. For Rango, the team added new shadow and lighting features into Plume for more realistic fire and dust effects.
"If we have a character standing in the key light, he'll actually
cast a shadow into the dust, smoke or fire. In the past we would fake
those biometric ray-type effects or any sort of shading in the composite
phase," Alexander said. "By using the GPU to bake shadows and lighting
into the simulation, we saved a tremendous amount of time and achieved a
more realistic effect by having all of the detail of the object that's
casting the shadow actually in the shadow itself."
Alexander added that the team received real-time feedback on dust and
fire thanks to Quadro acceleration in Plume. This meant a reduction in
time and money, as previously the same feedback would have taken days to
simulate the same scene. In addition, the hundreds of GPU cores in each
artist's workstation also boosted the performance of ILM's GPU render farm during off-business hours, Nvidia said.

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Fire started at around 11:20 p.m. in a sound stage at Uninversal Studios Hollywood, according to LA Now, and was out within about half an hour. The studio's sprinkler system kept the small blaze tamed.
"Initial reports indicate that electrical wiring may be to blame," reports ABC7. Luckily the theme park operations were not affected by last night's fire, and all of the rides were expected to be up and running this morning. No estimates regarding damage, or further details about the incident have been made available.
The Universal Studios backlot was the site of a massive and damaging fire in 2008. Restored and renovated portions of the backlot were re-opened in May 2010.

CHRISTIAN Slater has blamed one of his former flames for casting his beloved Star Wars collection to the dark side.The Heathers hunk, 41, says he is still upset at the losing his favorite toys for a second time.
“I used to geek out over action figures,” says Christian.
“I
would go nuts for them. I was replenishing the Star Wars collection I
had as a kid. I had just about completed it and then I was dating a girl
and she thought I was too old to have all that stuff. I had ships
hanging and everything but it all had to go.”
Slater recently revealed he “reached out” to Lindsay Lohan to help her deal with her rehabilitation.
Former
drug addict Christian admits he has tried to help the 24-year-old star
— who finished her fifth rehab stay in early January — by sending her
an email because he understands how difficult it is to deal with
dependency issues.
“Addiction is not pretty and you don’t fully understand it unless you’re dealing with it head-on,” he said.
“That’s why when I see other kids struggling, I will sometimes reach out to them — a call or an email.”

Actress Sally Field is to star opposite fellow two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg's film about Abraham Lincoln.
Field, 64, who won best actress Oscars for Norma Rae and Places in the Heart, will play the iconic US president's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.
Spielberg said Field would bring "fragility and complexity" to the part.
Out in 2012, the film is based Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Field can currently be seen opposite Calista Flockhart in TV series Brothers and Sisters, for which she won an Emmy in 2007.
In 1979's Norma Rae, Field played the title role in the tale of a Southern mill worker's fight to unionise her workplace.
1984 drama Places in the Heart saw her play a Texas widow desperate to keep her cotton farm running during the Great Depression.
Day-Lewis, 53, cast as Lincoln after Liam Neeson dropped out, won best actor Oscars for My Left Foot in 1990 and for There Will Be Blood in 2008.
Meanwhile, another Abraham Lincoln-related film - The Conspirator, directed by Robert Redford - is out in the US on Friday.
James McAvoy and Robin Wright star in the film which tells of Mary Surratt, a woman accused of playing a part in Lincoln's 1865 assassination.

Consummate nerd supplier ThinkGeek introduced the fabulous Star Wars
Lightsaber Popsicles to their product catalog, and fanboys have nary
been more excited at the prospect of licking Darth Vader's lightsaber.

Shipping
actual popsicles would make your post office all sticky and that's not
fair to those poor bastards who have to drive an opposite mini-truck all
day, so your $34.99 will get you a mold that comes with two Luke
Skywalker and two Darth Vader lightsaber popsicle hilts. Naturally, the
hilt lights up, giving the lightsaber pop a Force glow.

UGO-recommended popsicle flavors include Yoda Soda from the official Star Wars Cookbook, Ewok tears, and booze.

So
far, this is just an April Fool's joke product, but ThinkGeek has a
history of putting their April Fool's products into actual production,
from the 8-bit tie to the stink-less Star Wars TaunTaun sleeping bag.
Clicking on the Buy Now will give you a chance to vote for your favorite
joke products this year. Those with the most customer interest will
actually be made into buyable items! Since the Angry Birds Pork Rinds
are getting all the press, hop on your internet box (easier still, you
are already there) and make your corporate frozen treat interests known.

The
video below is a cute little commercial for the Star Wars Popsicles,
starring an ice cream truck-driving Darth Vader trying to sell Dago
Balls and Admiral Snackbars to neighborhood summertime children. More
ice cream trucks need to play the Star Wars theme song. I mean, I'll
still come running out of my house in my size 12 boys' Yoda pajamas to
buy an overpriced Colonel Crunch bar even though I have a car and the
freedom to take it to any ice cream shop I want at any time I want, but
the Star Wars theme song would be a nice touch.

Thursday, 14 April 2011

Watching the trailer for Super 8 (again) and noticed Darth Vader's Tie Fighter hanging from the ceiling just by the Space Shuttle poster. Take a look. The movie is set in 1979 so expect to see some vintage toys in the movie.

Lego Star Wars is back and will keep both young and old occupied for days.
The
animated Star Wars Lego figures may be funny to look at to start with,
but comedy is part of the attraction of the these games and this, the
third in the series, is no different.
Players will find the game play is smoother and the campaigns are longer than the previous two versions.
The
trademark gibberish dialogue between the characters is as amusing as
ever but there is more depth to this game with missions allowing gamers
to build armies and defend bases.
The levels span the whole of the
Clone Wars era of the hit animated saga so fans of the series will
already be familiar with the storylines and the characters.
The
new multiplayer modes are a welcome addition, giving you the freedom to
play with friends or even grown-ups who will probably beg you to let
them have a go when they see how much fun you are having.

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Mike Koehler doesn't have project
funding or construction experience, but he wants to make this life-sized
AT-AT walker a reality, dammit.
It's a sad fact that these days, the USA just can't cut it in the global giant robot race. Japan has its Gundam statue and Tetsujin 28-go, South Korea is still planning its gargantuan Taekwon V, and even China has that ... thing
... in Sichuan province. But what do we have here in the States?
Nothing, nada, zilch - unless the Statue of Liberty was really a coverup
this entire time, that is. (Even then, it'd be on the French).Star Wars fan Mike Koehler dreams of changing that. He dreams of channeling nerd power into a force for good. He dreams of an AT-AT for America.
In his manifesto linked above, Koehler calls upon the nerds of
America to harness their "brain power, [their] manufacturing prowess,
[their] organizational skills and [their] geek-fueled eye for detail" to
create a life-sized replica of the AT-AT walkers from The Empire Strikes Back.
He admits that he has no mechanical aptitude and no funding to get off
the ground, but that's what group efforts are for. Plus, come on -
wouldn't a full-scale AT-AT be awesome?
Koehler's vision goes beyond the simple statues we see in Asia,
though - he wants his AT-AT to be fully functional. I think that may be
dreaming a bit too hard there, Mike, but don't let me stop you.
Speaking with The Force.net,
the Oklahoma City-based father of three said that he hoped to have
"several build teams across the country" who would then come together
wherever they decided to put the damn thing together.

Traveller's Tales has told Official
Nintendo Magazine that LEGO Pirates Of The Caribbean could be one of the
best LEGO games yet.

TT has released eight LEGO games based on
successful films over the last six years including Harry Potter, Star
Wars and Indiana Jones, but the company believe its found the perfect
fit in Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Asked why Pirates Of The Caribbean was chosen as the next film for a
LEGO game, TT's Jonathan Smith said "The Pirates Of The Caribbean movies
are full of great characters, varied locations and cool action scenes.
This gives us the perfect foundation for a LEGO videogame. Also, the
Pirates Of The Caribbean world has a sense of fun and mischief which
fits really well with our own sensibilities. Plus: PIRATES!"

In
the same interview, he also said that the LEGO version of Johnny Depp's
Captain Jack Sparrow could be the best LEGO character they've ever
created. "We have a really talented team at Traveller's Tales who've
done a great job of capturing Jack Sparrow's personality in mini-figure
form," he added. "We actually find that people think he could be one of
the best characters we've created."

Yet TT Games wouldn't be
drawn on what the next project would be after LEGO Pirates Of The
Caribbean, simply saying "we've certainly got some surprises in the
pipeline for future titles."

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

There is well over an hour of extra content loaded on this disc,
but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing new here that didn't appear on the
original DVD release. Still, it’s almost overwhelming how much content
is in the special features. The only thing missing is a director’s
commentary, but you get so much in exchange that I think it’s a good
thing it’s absent. It probably would have been too much.

“Creating A.I.” is just that, a segment on the creation of the
film. There’s a lot of talk and pictures of Kubrick and the deeply
etched money bags underneath his eyes here, and it’s great. Being a
massive Kubrick fan (he’s my favorite director, by far), it’s nice to
hear so much love thrown in his direction and to learn that at one point
in his creation of the film he even requested that Spielberg direct it
and that he produce it. I never knew that. I always just thought he died
before he got a chance to do anything with it, but according to these
special features, that wasn’t the case at all. He had already gotten the
project off the ground since the '80s.

“Acting A.I.” features both Osment and Law talking about what
it’s like to play robots. It’s fascinating stuff. Especially seeing what
raw talent Osment once had. He was such a natural actor (jeez, I’m
talking like he’s dead).

“Designing A.I.” “Lighting A.I.” “A.I./F.X.,” and
the “Special Visual Effects and Animation” features are all deep and
introspective looks at everything that went into making the visuals so
stunning. “The Robots of A.I.” is a lengthy, but interesting,
discussion on the purpose of robots in our society and how they were
created in the film. Some were actors is costume and some were actual
robots. It’s really impressive. “The Sound and Music of A.I.”
delves into the strange sounds that go into a sci-fi flick and also the
John Williams’ score that plays throughout. And “Closing: Steven
Spielberg: Our Responsibility to Artificial Intelligence” is similar to
what I mentioned earlier about the film’s message on how we need to be
careful with how much of our souls and intellect that we invest in
technology. It almost sounds like Kubrick is talking vicariously through
Spielberg in this segment.

Monday, 11 April 2011

LucasArts told Gamasutra on Friday that it hired on Crystal Dynamics' former Tomb Raider creative and franchise director Tim Longo as creative director on an unannounced project.

It's not the first time that Longo has worked with LucasArts. He previously worked on LucasArts-published titles including Star Wars: Starfighter and Jedi Starfighter as lead designer, and was creative director on Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Longo even has a LucasArts credit as a playtester on the original X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
from the late 1990s. A LucasArts rep said in a statement that the
company is "thrilled to welcome him back to the LucasArts family."

Novelist Anthony Horowitz has claimed that he has been tapped to write a sequel to the upcoming film adaptation of Tintin, if Steven Spielberg's first film proves a success.

Horowitz, writer of the popular Alex Rider series of novels, said that he has been asked to write a sequel combining Hergé's classic Tintin stories The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners Of The Sun.

"As we speak I've been hired to write Tintin," Horowitz told Radio 5 host Richard Bacon. "They've got [The Chronicles Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn] coming out at Christmas, and if that film is a success and works and gets an audience I'm writing the sequel to it."

Horowitz also confirmed that the potential sequel would be titled Prisoners Of The Sun, which will be directed by Peter Jackson.

The writer was appearing on the show to promote Scorpia Rising, the final book in his Alex Rider series.

The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn will be released in cinemas on UK cinemas on October 26, and in the US on December 23.

George Zuller the lead combat designer for SWTOR talks about how aspects of their systems have changed from playtesting and focus groups. This
should give the hardcore fans a better understanding of what to expect
although I am sure it won’t be enough to satisfy their blood lust. Here
are the details for what you can expect in the class department of this
Star Wars title.Class Abilities
As you level up, your character will gain abilities from three sources:

Through trainers, from their base class (e.g. Sith Warrior)

Through trainers, from their advanced class (e.g. Marauder)

Through skill points spent in the skill trees of their Advanced Class

Skill Trees
Each skill tree provides access to a number of active abilities
(which are added to your ability bar, and can be activated during play).
You can also assign your training points to passive abilities. Passive
abilities are ‘always on’, and alter how your base class abilities work.
It is important to note that the choices you make in your skill tree
never subtract from your base class abilities; they instead improve and
add to the character’s arsenal.Skill Tree Choices
Imagine a Sith Warrior character, with the Juggernaut Advanced Class. As part of the tanking and control themed ‘Immortal’ skill tree, he may choose to learn Force Grip. This upgrades the base class ability Force Choke
from being a channeled ability, requiring several seconds to activate,
to being an instantly used ability. This increases the Juggernaut’s
effectiveness at engaging multiple enemies at once, as those being
choked not only take significant damage, but are also unable to act.
You will always have access to a limited number of training points to
spend in your skill tree, so your choices are important. You may choose
– for an in-game credits fee – to re-assign your skill points if you
wish, so you can experiment to find your perfect combination. Any one of
the three skill trees are valid to specialize in, or you can spend
training points in all of them for a more well-rounded character.

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Celebrating All the work from George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and John Williams. All the latest news updated daily. We are geeks and huge fans of their works. from Lucasarts to Lucasfilm, Star Wars to Indiana Jones. We will try to bring all the latest everyday. We will also report on other fandoms and geek stories. Follow us on Twitter or on Facebook. Feel free to let us know what you feel about our site or if you have an article you would like us to post.

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What Is The Bearded Trio?

Celebrating All the work from George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and John Williams. All the latest news updated daily. We are geeks and huge fans of their works. from Lucasarts, Lucasfilm, Star Wars, ILM, Skywalker Sound and loads more. We will try to bring all the latest everyday. Follow us on Twitter or on Facebook. Feel free to let us know what you feel about our site or if you have an article you would like us to post.